De-blog

I'm releasing each episode of In The Stars separately, via Smashwords and Amazon , and it's turning out to be quite labour-intensive, but hopefully well worth the effort. I've just made episode 3 (Pisces) available, as I will be on my way back from the London Author Fair on March 1st, which would be its 'official' launch date. This follows the release of episode 1 (Capricorn) on January 1st, and episode 2 (Aquarius) on February 1st. The episodes are available from free-1.49 USD (reader sets price on Smashwords), and the full novels are 6.00 USD in ebook format - paperback also available.* To set in context, In The Stars is part of my series, Hiding Behind The Couch . In its full form, In The Stars consists of two hefty, full-length novels (books 4 and 5 of the series), spanning the period of one year in the life of The Circle - the nine friends central to the series. What I wanted to do with this particular instalment is give new readers an opportu...

So, you've heard the black dog metaphor? For the past couple of months or so, he's been the spectre of a Cairn terrier - tiny snatched glimpses of a fairly benign little feller , just visible out of the corner of my eye. Yesterday he was a Staffordshire bull terrier, sitting in the hallway, panting, impatient: "Come and take me for a walk," he goaded. Pant, pant, pant, pant... "No, you're OK. I'll just sit here and write, and maybe you'll go away, or someone else will take you for a walk." Which they did - thank you, Jose. Today, he's back. He's grown some overnight, too. By now he's looking something like an underfed Newfoundland: a bit scrawny, all fur coat and no...meat on his bones. (See, even I can manage a little attempt at humour in these dark moments.) I'll pick up on that ole black dog visual contact again in a minute, but I want to mention something else (yup, mental health's a bit haywire, so don't expect log...